29 ACPS High School Students Named National Merit Semifinalists

By Amanda Roland
National Merit Semifinalists

Alachua County Public Schools (ACPS) have 29 high school students that have been named National Merit semifinalists for the 2021 National Merit Scholarship Program. The names were announced earlier today, September 9, by the National Merit Scholarship Corporation.

To be considered as a semifinalist, students must score high scores on the Preliminary SAT/National Qualifying Test (PSAT/NMSQT). Out of the almost 1.5 million students that took the exam, only 16,000 qualify as semifinalists.

“The students now have the opportunity to earn finalist status. In addition to earning high scores on the SAT, they will have to submit applications highlighting their other academic achievements, awards and honors earned, leadership activities, teacher recommendations and an essay,” according to an ACPS press release.

Of the 29 Alachua County National Merit semifinalists, 14 are from Eastside High, 12 are from Buchholz High and three are from Gainesville High. According to ACPS, This year’s semifinalists are: Hari Grand, Aditya Gupte, Betsy Harnsberger, Matthew Hershfield, Michael Hershfield, Aarti Kalamangalam, Sean Raymond LaMadrid, David Liu, Jillian Provost, Delia Savin, Sneha Sujil, Elizabeth Thomason, Anzhe Yuan and Bill Zhao from Eastside High School; Amy Cao, Nicholas Caruso, Ted Gingrich, Jeremy Griffin, Sean Han, Olivia Lee, Daniel Liu, Robert Privette, Samuel Shlafer, Amy Xing, Albert Zhang and Qingyu Zhang of Buchholz High School; and Griffin Golde, Zachary Mulligan and Patrick Schanuth of Gainesville High School;

Congratulations to all the semifinalists! They will find out if they have reached finalist status in the spring of 2021.

 

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